Afghanistan: U.S. blocking deal on future security pact

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has dug his heels in, making it clear he’s in no rush to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the U.S. to lay out what American troops who remain in the country after the majority of the forces leave next year can and cannot do.

Negotiations over the BSA, which will outline the U.S. military role in the country for the coming decade, have reached the “final, sensitive stage,” Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi told CBS News.

Karzai has now taken a direct role in the negotiations but his national security advisor, Rangin Datfar Spanta, is leading the negotiations for the Afghan government, and the eventual deal will have to be approved by the Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly), Faizi told CBS News.

He said two issues remain in the way of an agreement with the United States. The first stumbling block is Washington’s insistence that American troops maintain the right to launch offensive strikes “without limits,” including missile strikes, detentions and night raids after the 2014 withdrawal, which Faizi said the Afghan government would, “clearly consider a violation of our national sovereignty.” see more

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